PAD MAN - A Cross-curricular ELA and STEM Film Study


Background

Pad Man is a Hindi film written by R. Balki.  The film falls under historical fiction and is based on the life and work of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore, India.  Muruganantham invented a low cost sanitary pad making machine.  More specifically, using what he learned about the commercial process of making sanitary pads, he reverse engineered four separate mini-machines that can be operated manually or semi-automatically.

This film is a real-life example of a person who used the engineering design process in its most rudimentary form to address a challenge that falls under the Health pillar of the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering.


Summary

1. Students will complete a web quest mini-research assignment to identify engineering advancements made or published in the last five years according to the categories in the quest document (student innovators, health, safety, entertainment, social change).

2. Students will watch Pad Man taking notes and answering questions posed about the film.

3. Students will write a response to the film and share that response in their choice of technology-based format.




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